PERSONAL NARRATIVE | GENDER BIAS | CHALLENGES
Unseen Battles: How I Thrived in a Male-Dominated Industry
A personal account of resilience and success against the odds
It was my first day at my first job.
I was super excited. We were 20 newly joined MBAs full of aspiration to make it big in the corporate world.
The company welcomed us with a lunch meeting with the presidents and directors. They told us, “You are the future.” I felt super proud to be part of this group. The ambitious me saw myself in the place of one of these leaders one day, welcoming youth to their first job.
But wait.
What I noticed was shocking. There wasn’t a single woman in the leadership. However, it wasn’t unusual because it was an MNC pharmaceutical company in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
I saw a few female employees managing administrative tasks of the lunch event, later organising the set-up of the presentation to be given by the male directors.
There were also a few women in HR, but the head of HR was a man. The women were mostly at the executive and assistant levels and very few at the manager level.
